ABSTRACT
The Abortion Act of 1967 is rightly viewed as one of the most important pieces of social legislation in the post-war period, and perhaps in the twentieth century. Abortion had from an early stage been chiefly regarded as a criminal rather than a medical matter. Abortion had from an early stage been chiefly regarded as a criminal rather than a medical matter. The loss of population and the loss of actual and potential mothers through abortion and other misadventures appeared to be linked. Representatives of the British Medical Association had taken it in 1933 that it should also respond to the troubling uncertainties of law and practice, and its response was to be a motion proposing the convening of a special Committee on Medical Aspects of Abortion. The 1934 Annual Representative Meeting did pass a resolution based on the first part of the Council’s recommendation.
